Prestident Obama relaunches his election campaign today after putting it on ice for three days to focus all his attention on the super storm that has decimated America’s East Coast.

After touring areas of New Jersey worst hit by Hurricane Sandy
yesterday, the president has three campaign stops today in Nevada,
Colorado and Wisconsin.

He is planning to make up for lost time by visiting seven states
by the weekend.

The massive storm has turned the election upside down, with Mitt
Romney tentatively returning to the trail yesterday with two
rallies in the battleground state of Florida.

But if he was hoping the president would trip up in his handling
of the crisis, he was disappointed.

Eight out of ten voters in a Washington Post/ABC poll released
last night gave Mr. Obama an ‘excellent’ or ‘good’ rating for his
leadership during the emergency.

With Election Day next Tuesday, the rivals were neck-and-neck in
the opinion polls surveyed just before the storm struck.

But some senior Republicans fear Mr Romney’s momentum has been
blunted by the natural disaster that has left at least 64 dead, cut
power from millions of homes and paralysed much of the eastern
United States.

They are also unhappy at New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s
exuberant praise for Mr Obama during their meeting in front of the
cameras yesterday. The blunt-talking governor said later that he ‘
could care less’ about the election when so many of his
constituents were in trouble.

At his rallies in Florida, Mr. Romney veered away from personal
attacks on the president and tried to strike a ‘positive
tone,’ according to his campaign.

Both candidates will be careful not to become caught up in
political squabbling at a time so many Americans are suffering
extreme hardship.

The chaotic aftermath of the storm has even raised the
possibility that the election could be postponed for a week to
ensure voters can all get to the polls.

Although US constitution experts thought it was unlikely, the
sheer scale of the damage has raised serious questions over whether
voting will be possible in some of the worst-hit areas.

It could take days to restore electricity to more than 8 million
homes and businesses that lost power when the storm pummeled the
region.

That means power could still be out in parts of some states on
Election Day — a major problem for precincts that rely on
electronic voting machines.

And residents aren’t even being allowed to return to their
wrecked homes in parts of New Jersey and Long Island where entire
neighbourhoods have been destroyed.

Asked whether the president had the power to put off the
election, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said he wasn’t
sure.

In fact, the date can only be changed by a vote of US Congress
or by individual states implementing emergency procedures.

New York rescheduled its mayoral primary after the 9/11 attacks
and Louisiana’s governor postponed the municipal elections in New
Orleans following Hurricane Katrina.

But the presidential ballot - always set as the Tuesday after
the first Monday in November - has never been changed.

This is unchartered territory, so experts aren’t sure how it
would be handled.

Each state has its own laws dealing with what to do if an
emergency jeopardizes voting and who can make the call.

Other possible solutions could be that voting hours are extended
at various locations. In places where electronic voting machines
are in use, paper ballots could be used instead.

Some areas also might choose to move polling locations if
existing ones are damaged, inaccessible or won’t have power on
Election Day.

The US Federal Emergency Management Agency’s administrator,
Craig Fugate, said he anticipated the storm’s impact could linger
into next week and affect the election.

He said FEMA would look at what support it could provide to
states before the election. ‘This will be led by the states,’ he
said.